Central contracts: Viru, Bhajji relegated to grade B

Bangalore:Team India discards Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan have been downgraded to grade B, while newly appointed vice-captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh find themselves promoted to grade A in the new gradation list of players for retainership announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Mumbai today.

Board secretary Niranjan Shah announced on Saturday that grading had been done on the basis of performances in the previous season. The grade A players will earn a retainer of Rs 50 lakh (US$123,183), the second-rung players Rs 35 lakh while grade C cricketers would get an annaul retainership of Rs 20 lakh.

The gradation of players for retainership will be for the period of one year, that is from Oct 2006 to Sept 2007.

The glaring omissions from the lists have been batsmen Mohd Kaif and Dinesh Karthick.

Kaif was not considered since he had not played enough cricket in the last season, while Karthick missed the bus as he has not met the criteria of five Tests or 15 one-day internationals.